Electronic Reading Room

Department of Justice/U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service

TITLE: Financial Accounting and Control System

ACRONYM: FACS

ORIGINATOR:

ABSTRACT: FACS is the legacy accounting system used by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for the preparation of the financial statements and general ledger. FACS does not fully integrate all the accounting functions and systems. The Service is moving towards a new system called the Federal Financial Management System (FFMS).

PURPOSE: FACS is used to provide an accounting of the financial activities of the INS. Further, the system provides the necessary information to meet external fiscal reporting requirements and respond to written inquiries and complaints by the public.

ACCESS CONSTRAINTS: All records in FACS are protected from unauthorized access through appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. These safeguards include restricting access to those with a need-to-know to perform their official duties, using locks and alarm devices, passwords and/or encrypted data communications.

USE CONSTRAINTS: Users of FACS will be restricted to only those privileges necessary to perform assigned tasks.

AGENCY PROGRAM: The INS is the arm of the Department of Justice that is charged with border enforcement, immigration enforcement, and naturalization activities. FACS is one of the tools utilized to accomplish this mission.

SOURCES OF DATA: Data contained in FACS derives from personnel who handle finance-related activities of the INS, such as payroll, contracting, purchasing, travel-related payments and debt collections; and the individuals covered by this system.

RESPONSIBLE OFFICE FOR DISTRIBUTING INFORMATION

ORDER PROCESS: A request for access to a record from the system will be made in writing with the envelope and the letter clearly marked APrivacy Access Request.@ Include in the request your full name, complete address, date of birth, place of birth, notarized signature or a statement under penalty of perjury to declare your identity is true, and other identifying data you may wish to furnish to assist in making a proper search of our records. The requester will also provide a return address for transmitting the information. Requests for access to information must be addressed to the office that maintains the record or the FOIA/PA Unit, INS, 425 I Street, NW, Washington, DC 20536.